The Guelph Tower

Also known as the ‘Prison Tower’ or ‘Sentinel Tower’, it was built in the first half of the 15th century. Its function was to protect the northern curtain wall and access to the fortress with grazing fire.

The Guelph Tower is built in ashlars of spungone stone, while the internal staircase, the brackets and the embrasures are in sandstone.

The three coats of arms placed, externally, almost at the top of the tower are also of the same material.

They represent the lily, the cross and the eagle, which were respectively the symbols of the city, the people and the Guelph part of Florence.

The upper floor of the tower, equipped with projections, was covered. The access was gained not only by the internal spiral staircase, but also by an external masonry staircase, now partly ruined. From the top, descending the spiral staircase, you reach a room from which you can access the parade ground. To the side of the entrance there is a loophole that defended the northern curtain with grazing fire, however, it was walled up following the construction of the ‘scarp’ on this curtain in 1494. On the floor below, there is a second vaulted room with a loophole facing west. At the end of the spiral staircase you reach another room in which a loophole facing east opens, for the defense of the moat in front of the main entrance to the fortress. From this last room you finally reach, through a narrow and dark staircase, the lower floor, where there are three casemates that were later converted into prisons.

It is interesting to note that in the vault of each of these cells there is a ventilation duct, opening externally on the side of the fortress at the height of the cordonade.

How to get there: Medieval village of Castrocaro